Wrap-Up from #SMCNash

Tonight, quite the cast of players in the Predators community presented for Social Media Club Nashville regarding how we’re using Social Media tools to build a stronger fan base, and boost the product that is our beloved Nashville Predators.

Dirk Hoag (On The Forecheck), Paul Nicholson (ReTweetBot), Derek Perez (Nashville Predators), and myself took about two hours and talked about everything from Eklund to how a pop star can drive traffic to your site.

Paul’s introduction of ReTweetBot showed us how instead of following 600 seperate users on Twitter, we can all communicate with PredFans and commit to having a hockey discussion.. without knowing what you had to drink at Starbucks (now I want a caramel apple spice.. drats!).

Dirk Hoag showed us how powerful the SB Nation platform is, and how anyone in the community can contribute material to the site, not just Dirk. Using his Fan Posts, and FanShots segments, you can post your thoughts and photos from the game or any Predators-related subject.

Derek Perez talked about how the Nashville Predators have adjusted their online strategy. He mentioned that their ‘core’ was Facebook and NashvillePredators.com. Anything else they do, say on Twitter, is to drive traffic to those two core segments of their online presence. Ultimately, their goal is to sell a product. Using the traffic from multiple platforms of social media to drive back to Facebook and NP.com allows them to get their users back to that product. Very interesting discussion. Paul Nicholson was able to relate it back to his experience at Dell, and how their social media is strong in some platforms, but still ramping up elsewhere.

Oh yeah, I was there too. I presented a quick background on where Section 303 got started, where we have been, and where we are hopefully going. Jeremy whipped up a quick version of the 303:30 tailored for #SMCNash as well.

So, in summary, what did we learn?

1. Having an online presence is fantastic, but if you’re going to create a presence, make it an active one. Don’t just throw something up to say you’re on Facebook, Twitter, etc… and not post active content.

2. You have to know what your goal is when growing your audience. Are you driving traffic to your site? Are you selling a product? What is your ultimate goal, when reaching out to the community to draw interest?

3. I am not addicted to Twitter.

I know I speak for the rest of the panel and thank those that watched via UStream, as well as those that were in attendance. I hope you learned something, I know I did. Oh, and if you want to hear the special “303:30” edition we created for #SMCNash, SMCNash 303:30 Promo.